OtherPress.

Room 1020-700 Royal Ave.
Douglas College

New Westminster, BC

V3L 5B2

TELEPHONE: 604.525.3542
WEBSITE: theotherpress.ca
EMAIL: editor@theotherpress.ca

STAFF LIST

Natalie Serafini
Editor-in-Chief
Meditor@theotherpress.ca

Eric Wilkins
Assistant Editor
Massistant@theotherpress.ca

Angela Ho
Business Manager

Chandler Walter
Distribution Manager

Mike LeMieux
Layout Manager

Joel McCarthy
Graphics Manager

Cara Seccafien
Production Assistant

Ed Appleby
IHustrator

Jony Roy
Social Media Coordinator

Angela Espinoza
News Editor
Minews@theotherpress.ca

Michael Sopow
Sports Reporter

Cheryl Minns

Arts Editor
Marts@theotherpress.ca

Chitwan Khosla
Features Editor
Mfeatures@theotherpress.ca

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor
Mlifeandstyle@theotherpress.ca

Elliot Chan
Opinions Editor
Mopinions@theotherpress.ca

Sharon Miki
Humour Editor
Mhumour@theotherpress.ca

Staff Writers

Alex Stanton

Cazzy Lewchuk
Mercedes Deutscher

Senior Columnists
Adam Tatelman
Joshua Grant

Columnists

Kirsten Scott-Wuori
Julie Wright
Contributors

Sarah Walker
Taylor Pitt

OrherPress.

7
le
help

Yu friendly neighbourhood
newspaper recently went to
a national student journalism
conference in Ottawa; there,
campus papers across Canada
congregated to learn, drink, and
celebrate the best of the best in

the form of the annual ceremony, :
: fee for every submission they

: make to the Johnny awards. This
: year, the newspapers that swept

: the award nominations were

: the newspaper that hosted the

: conference (with a total of five

? Nominations out of 18 for the

: Fulcrum), and the three biggest

: newspapers that have left CUP

: within the last two years (with

: five nominations for the Peak,

: six nominations for the Ubyssey,
: and seven nominations for the

: Gateway).

Essentially, the organization :
: newspapers were left off of the

: nomination list wasn’t surprising.
: In the time that I’ve been a part

: of CUP, the Other Press has only

: ever gotten one nomination,

: fora humour article written by

: our former Editor-in-Chief and

: former Humour Editor, Liam

: Britten. Liam’s sharp, satirical,

: laugh-out-loud-funny piece on

: the lack of media coverage of the
: Syrian war was in competition

: witha list-icle, and lost toa

: “letter from airport security.”

the JHM awards (affectionately
referred to as the Johnny’s).
Unfortunately, your friendly
neighbourhood newspaper was
not nominated for any awards.

I want to preface, before I
venture any further into this
twisted and murky discussion,
that I’ve hesitated to comment
on this subject because I know
I will sound like sour grapes.
Let’s accept this fact, and I will
endeavour to sound as fair and
unbiased as I can.

which awards the Johnny’s,
Canadian University Press
(CUP), is made up of both large
and little papers—well-funded
papers with healthy student
levies, and less affluent papers.
Traditionally, these large, well-
funded papers sweep the awards
at the Johnny’s. Now, I don’t
want to sound like I’m saying
money determines who wins
these awards; that’s a large part
of it, as having the money to
reimburse staff and volunteers
attracts the strong talents who
will push to develop further,
but another factor is the school
itself: if you're at a school witha

to have a lot of strong writers

whose education at the student
newspaper is supplemented by

© Getloknowus!

© The Other Press has been Douglas College’s student newspaper since 1976. Since 1978 we have
been an autonomous publication, independent of the student union. We area registered society
under the Society Act of British Columbia, governed by an eight-person board of directors
appointed by our staff. Our head office is located in the New Westminster campus.

© The Other Press is published weekly during the fall and winter semesters, and monthly during
the summer. We receive our funding from a student levy collected through tutition fees every
semester at registration, and from local and national advertising revenue. The Other Press is a
member ofthe Canadian University Press (CUP), asyndicate of student newspapers that includes

: their classes. If you're at a school
: witha significant arts presence,

: you'll likely end up with a more

: aesthetically pleasing paper.

: When newspapers leave

: CUP’s membership, as papers

: have begun to do in increasing

numbers, they pay an additional

The fact that a lot of

It’s also not-so-surprising

: that the newspaper hosting

: was nominated fora lot of

: awards, because that has been
journalism program, you're likely :
: tradition, super hush-hush,

: that the host newspaper sweeps
: both the nominations (which

the trend. It’s an unspoken

papers from all across Canada.

© The OtherPressreservestheright to choose what we will publish, and we will not publish material
that is hateful, obscene, or condones or promotes illegal activities. Submissions may be edited
for clarity and brevity if necessary. All images used are copyright to their respective owners.

   

: are supposed to be an honour
: in themselves) and the lucrative
: awards.

Other student newspaper

: people, who have been around

: longer than J have and had more
: time to become disillusioned

: with CUP and the JHM awards,

: speak cynically of when McGill

: hosted the conference and won a
: ludicrous number of accolades;

: at my first JHM gala, we made a

: drinking game out of every time

: the Ubyssey was mentioned—

: that year the Ubyssey was

: nominated for seven awards, the
: McGill Daily was nominated for

: five, and the Link was nominated
: for eight awards.

I have the utmost respect

: for my peer newspapers, and

: again, I know I sound like sour

: grapes. I sound like sour grapes

: because I spent hours poring

: through my newspaper’s content
: deciding what to submit for the

: Johnny’s; because I’m proud of

: how incredibly far the Other

: Press has come in the last few

: years under the watchful eyes

: of people who care a great deal

: about media, design, writing,

: and the Other Press itself;

: because it’s the same tired story

: every year, where we're supposed
: to believe that the awards aren't

: somehow skewed, when one of

: the organizations that sponsors

: awards, Free Media, is run by

: people who were once associated _:
: with the Gateway; becauseI’m —:
: insulted and angry when Kate
: Black, who won three awards

: when her newspaper hosted,

: tweets in response to JHM

Thy
ATG

: criticism, “here’s a cool theory:

: better work gets awards. judges

: are from across the country and

: entrant names are stripped...”

: Those three wins were only a

: portion of the 1 nominations out
: of 21 categories that her paper,

: the Gateway, was nominated for.

The problem is, whether

: or not the judging process is

: skewed, we don’t really know:

: there's no transparency about

: who judges, or what they think

: of the submissions that don't

: get nominated, or even who gets
: disqualified. An anonymous

: Twitter account sprung up at

: the conference, which took to

: pointing out the fact that the

: nominations were following

: a similar pattern as before.

: Unsurprisingly, the response

: from those fortunate few who

: have won in the past was to state
: that newspapers like us don’t

: get awards because we aren't

: as good—and there area lot of

: implications wrapped up in that
: assertion about my newspaper's
: talent and the work that we

: put in every week. Rather than

: taking a critical look at how the
: JHM awards have played out for
: years, these journalists chose to
: clutch at their awards, shaking

: their heads and covering their

: ears against the blasphemy of
criticizing a lack of transparency.

Hello gorgeous,

Natali Serafini

Editor-in-Chief

@ theotherpress.ca

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